Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another.
Jane Austen
Getting to Know You
June is Indigenous History Month, and Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21) is a time all to honour the cultures and contributions of Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Inuit, and Metis).
As I was reflecting on what I wanted to put into this blog, the song “Getting to know You came to mind. It is the one that Julie Andrews sang to the children in “The King and I”
Perhaps some words of the song can apply to our growing relationship with Indigenous peoples. It has been and is a process of “getting to know” each other and “getting to know what to say” when entering into the Indigenous ways of knowing.
June 21st is National Indigenous Peoples Day in which we honour the Indigenous peoples, Elders and ancestors to commemorate the Indigenous culture, language, land and ways of being.
It was first self-declared Indian Day in 1945, by Jules Sioui and chiefs from across Turtle Island (North America). In 1982, the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations) called for the creation of a National Aboriginal Solidarity Day to be celebrated on 21 June.
Sometimes, critics say of the indigenous Peoples that “they need to get over it” when the topic arises about the residential School system, the “60’s scoop”, the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, 2 spirit, and gender diverse people (MMIWG2S). “Getting over it” is not what it is about. Journeying together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous/settlers through those painful years of history is what it is about.
It is important to remember, not forget what has happened and continues to happen in the unjust treatment of Indigenous peoples.
It is about re-member-ing. And to better understand at a heart level what was done TO the first peoples when the settlers came. We all are called to re-mem-ber that we are one people with diverse ways of being, knowing and enriching each other.
By journeying together in openness, respect, humility, love, truth courage, honesty and wisdom, we can come to a new united people on this land.
Healing must be part of the process of being reconciled, being one.
The colonizer needs to be healed from the shame that exists about what the early colonial ancestors did. Education about the true history of colonial and Indigenous relationships is absolutely necessary, followed by a commitment not to have this treatment repeated.
Many of the First nations Peoples do not even know the truth of their past, because Residential School survivors never spoke of their experience. When the truth is told, there is more of a chance of reconciliation.
The peoples of the 14th and 15th Century, Indigenous and colonizers, were taught by the Doctrine of Discovery, that the first peoples were savages, inferior. They believed it of themselves, and the colonizers were thereby justified in taking the land and resources.
Healing for the Indigenous involves dealing with the anger, sense of loss, frustration, through the various Indigenous ways of healing.
The colonizers also need healing, through education and by ensuring that what was done so cruelly in the 14th century to the present, is never repeated.
Forgiveness is an act of the Creator, where restoration to a new order happens after the victim is able to remember the atrocities, and to choose to move beyond the anger even to a point of forgiveness of the wrongdoer. (see pp. 17-19, 11 in The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and Strategies by Robert Schreiter, C.PP.S
Once the wronged Indigenous person can forgive, the wrongdoer can be moved to express true sorrow and reshape his/her actions.
So, on this day of honouring the Indigenous peoples of this part of Turtle Island, called Canada, let us embark on a journey together.
For example, some of the opportunities available to us as non-Indigenous, are attending a POW WOW...these are open to the public; visit a friendship Centre; attend webinar or a Teaching and Sharing circle online, visit a reserve in your area.
“Getting to Know You” begins with Education. In the words of former Senator, Murray Sinclair,
“It is education that got us here, and it is education that will get us out.”
-Sister Kathleen Lichti, CSJ
Thoughts on the Summer Solstice
There’s Fire in the Heart
Passion and Compassion Thrive
An Alive Human
Fire in the Heart haiku - Gurunam Khalsa (2003)
“Empty yourself continually in honor of the Incarnate Word who emptied himself with so much love for you (Phil.2:7).
Make your commitment to live in the practice of the most sincere, true and profound humility possible to you. ”
Many suns have passed since I was young and filled with unbounded enthusiasm. At that time, gatherings with friends centered around exploring issues like the feminine face of God, women’s spirituality, and our role in the Church. Though engaged in social justice work, the group also created opportunities for personal reflection and even solstice celebrations. Both summer and winter solstices held different energies. We all did too.
IMAGE: Unsplash/Isi Parente
Burnt into memory is one particular Summer Solstice when members of our group gathered in the large garden of a friend to celebrate this zenith moment of the year around a solstice fire. Did we know that jumping over the flames was supposed to bring us good luck and rid the soul of evil? That doing it three times would make the ritual even more powerful. And the higher the jump, the better?
As we partook in a potluck dinner together – each dish a reflection of the taste, skill and inventiveness of the individual cook – we reflected on the joy of being one despite a diversity in age, religious background, body type and sexual preference. We were simply a group of women, gathering to celebrate our value and role in society. With wild abandon, the fire jumping began. Oh, it felt good until one of us twisted her ankle and fell, luckily not burning herself or her clothes but twisting her ankle quite badly. Frenzied fun gave way to anxious concern as we rushed to attend to her needs.
Jacob Peter Gowy's The Flight of Icarus (1635–1637)
Hints of the Icarus myth invade my mind: Icarus, though advised by his father to neither fly too high to the sun nor too close to the seas to escape imprisonment, instead soared high and beyond, so close to the sun that the beeswax holding his wings together melted from the heat. Perhaps it was fear that motivated him or a sense of his own strength and will but regardless, his actions were guided from within and not from a place of trust in his father.
Perhaps there is a bit of Icarus in all of us. A very wise Sister Shirley Tapp, csj once told me that the flute cannot be played unless it is hollow and allows the breath of God to move through it. Aspiring to fly high like Icarus, fueled by our own will and desires or jumping over the Fire of the Sun/Son can have unfortunate outcomes. Instead, on Summer Solstice and each day we wait for the Son-rise that warms and ignites the Holy Spark of Love within us.
- Susan Hendricks, CSJ Associate | Winnipeg, MB
REFERENCES: 1) Fire in the Heart haiku - Gurunam Khalsa (2003). Haiku Heart: Vol. 1. West Palm Beach: FL: HeartLuck Global Publishing. 2) Maxim 3 as quoted in https://www.sjabr.org/about/congregation-of-st-joseph/maxims.
TILT
“By the word of the Lord the Heavens were made;. . . .” (Ps. 33: 6)
How’s your imagination? Have you ever imagined God speaking words at the beginning of creation–especially the creation of our Earth? I imagine God completing the planet Earth and then saying, “Tilt.”
We are approaching the summer solstice on June 21. For us in the northern hemisphere, as we continue our revolution around the sun, we will be ‘tilted’ toward the sun and will feel its warmth. The ‘tilt’ of the Earth is what gives us our seasons and so because of the ‘tilt’ of 23.4 degrees of Earth’s pole, we will have the longest day of the year. In other words, Earth’s northern hemisphere will begin the season summer.
As summer begins in the northern hemisphere we can honour human consciousness and rejoice with the British at the 5000 year old monument at Stonehenge.
-Sister Elaine Cole, csj
Image: Unsplash/Philip Mackie
